Long Island, New York has a long history of producing wine and today it’s
again a respected wine region. Shinn Estate Vineyards, on the North Fork,
is recognized as a leading producer, not only for the quality of their wines,
but also for their farming practices. Along with being great stewards of their
land, Barbara Shinn and David Page are making outstanding Bordeaux-style
wines–on the east coast, no less.
They are no strangers to food and wine. They met in Berkeley, California
when both were in the food business. They came east and opened Home,
a restaurant in New York City. Their efforts received kudos as early
proponents of local food and wine. (They have since sold their interest in
the restaurant.)
Not only is their vineyard a manicured gem, but their guesthouse (with
four perfect rooms) is the only place to stay on a vineyard property on the
North Fork. And the best thing? Breakfast by the fantastic David Page.
The People Who Feed Us would like to thankSteve Lewis for his
brilliant music for this piece.
Shot at Shinn Estate Vineyards, Mattituck, New York.
This guy is all about helping you to eat locally. He buys local vegetables from
his neighbors at the Union Square Greenmarket, dunks them in way tasty brines,
adds fresh herbs, spices, and other delicious accoutrements and before you
know it–another batch of Rick’s Picks has been born.
Harkening back to the original reason for pickling, partners Lauren McGrath and
Rick Field are preserving the bounty of the harvest. They offer not only the kinds
of traditional tastes we all know and love, but they rock green beans, okra, beets
asparagus and curried green tomatoes. Their flavor profiles are in the forefront
in the pickled genre–you don’t see these combinations just anywhere.
The folks at Rick’s Picks are picky about their ingredients, their process and are
extraordinarily enthusiastic about their wares. And why not? These jars contain
some of the best tasting, turbo-charged flavors available anywhere.
Rhinebeck, New York–In an beautiful renovated church, Josh Kroner is serving
the freshest possible ingredients at his hugely successful restaurant. He is a
supporter of the Slow Food movement, so much so that he named his restaurant, Terrapin. As in turtle. Pretty slow. Not the service–the local food attitude.
In an earlier life, Josh chefed at Mesa Grill (under Bobby Flay) where he learned
all about building flavor. He’s taken those lessons to heart at his own restaurant.
There’s even a duck quesadilla on his menu.
His support of local producers means great stuff on the plates coming out of
his kitchen. This is a chef committed to local, slow, quality ingredients.
Legendary for her cookbooks, Deborah Madison continues to delve into all
aspects of the culture surrounding food. Her involvement in grassroots efforts
in her home state of New Mexico, her thoughtful writing and her willingness
to help raise our awareness of food issues make Ms. Madison a trusted voice.
This quote says a lot about Deborah: “One can’t just get gushy about food
without knowing something of its story—how it comes to us and what sustains
it. That’s what makes it interesting, if not urgent, to me.”
This was shot in and around Galisteo and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
A little north and east of Avignon, near Gordes, close to Goult in the Luberon
Valley — in the south of France, Sarah and her husband, Michael Brown are
doing a great job educating people about good food. Their program is aptly
named A Week in Provence and takes people from homemade foie gras to the
market in St. Remy de Provence in a robust line up that teaches all that is good about Provençale food, wine and culture.
Growing up with a family cook that informed her with methods from Le Cordon
Bleu, Sarah added knowledge of seasonality, simple preparation and expert
presentation — making her one of the premier cooks in the region. She talks
here about her philosophy of food and friends.
This was shot in the south of France, at her home in Les Martins.
3-Corner Field Farm is located four hours north of New York City, near the
border of Vermont. Karen Weinberg, husband Paul Borghard, along with
daughters Emily and Zoe, raise lambs and sheep with the animal’s quality
of life their highest priority. And of all the well laid out farms in the region,
3-Corner has to be near the top. This is a beautiful farm and these people
are doing a great job.
When she’s not moving sheep or building fence (when is that, exactly?), she’s
making wonderful French-style sheep’s milk cheeses. The list of cheeses she
has mastered continues to grow. Her stand at the Union Square Greenmarket
on most Saturdays is crowded with fans of her lamb, her cheese and her smile.
It would be difficult to find two more unlikely pig farmers than these two.
But if the opinions of their fans from the New York City Greenmarket and
many well known city chefs count for anything, they are doing just fine. Flying Pigs Farm is generally acknowledged as one of the best pork producers
around. Their secret? Rare heritage breed pigs raised in a humane way. Open
pasture and woods, clean food, spring water and low stress produces meat
far superior to most. Not only are they producing a great product, they are
preserving these rare breeds of our porcine friends.
This was shot on and around their farm in the Battenkill River Valley and NYC.
We recently found this in a file while doing some organizing. The sound
quality suffers, but we wanted to share this.
In 2000, in Paris, we were lucky enough to record (and hang out with) Lionel Poilâne. He was very stylish in his very stylish office above his eponymous
shop. And what we learned from him was: fresh is best, keep all the good
traditions about food alive for the generations to come and don’t compromise
when it comes to good food.
He really knew the science of his business and he was very good about
sharing his knowledge. His daughter, Apollonia is keeping alive the family
legacy at the shop at N° 8 rue du Cherche-Midi.
This woman is on a mission. She wants people to discover the kind of Indian
food she grew up eating. Her father, a native of Kerala in southern India, knows
all the ins and outs of this sophisticated cuisine and has passed his knowledge
on to her. In Woodstock, New York she (and her cohorts) are producing fresh
simmer sauces and chutneys that have to be tasted to be believed. Using only
the freshest ingredients and painstaking manufacturing processes, she brings
a modern vibrancy to her family’s recipes.
Maya Kaimal Fine Indian Foods is in a unique position. Located in the fresh,
refrigerated section (of the stores stocking her products) these simmer sauces
and chutneys are most likely the only ones to be found there. It’s not often that a
food product has such a distinctive situation.
Her story was shot in and around Woodstock, New York.
Ever since she attended college in Perugia, Italy Paula Lambert has been in
love with good cheese, good bread and good wine. Later, when she was living
in Dallas, Texas she realized she couldn’t find the kinds of cheeses she enjoyed
in Italy. What’s a woman to do? She started making her own and formed the Mozzarella Company in the early eighties. Influenced by southwest chefs like Stephan Pyles, Dean Fearing and Robert Del Grande, Ms. Lambert started
adding herbs and chiles to her fresh cheeses. And never looked back. Her
cheese is now available from the Cowgirl Creamery in California to Murray’s
Cheese Shop in New York City. That’s a long way from Perugia.
In southwest Missouri, Rick Hopkins is producing fresh, healthy meat that has
been written about by Marian Burros in The New York Times. His company, American Pasturage, is in the forefront of pastured meat. Most ranchers who
are engaged in grass fed products, see themselves as “grassfarmers”. The
thought being that if you raise good, healthy grass and let your animals graze
on it–the cycle will take care of itself. And it does. The delicious beef, lamb,
and veal that is the result of his hard wok, humane practices and attention
to detail have people buying out his farmers market stand in less than an hour
on most Saturdays. The good news? You can order his tasty products online.
His grandfather came to America in 1907 and opened a butcher shop in Perth
Amboy, New Jersey. He practically grew up in the grocery business working
alongside his father and uncle. But most people know Rob Kaufelt as the owner
of the venerable Greenwich Village institution, Murray’s Cheese Shop.
Cheese has grown almost exponentially as one of the foods people like to talk
about, study, evaluate, discover . . . and, oh yeah, eat. And for those who crave
the good stuff Murray’s is universally acknowledged as THE cheese temple.
The contacts he’s made around the world guarantee his shop has the best cheese
available. Murray’s has an affineur (cheese ager) constantly checking the wheels
and rounds in four separate temperature and humidity controlled caves - this
allows the cheese to evolve and develop unique flavor profile and appearance.
Watch part one shot at Murray’s Cheese Shop in New York.
In southwestern Missouri, Kip Glass is raising meat the right way — on grass. His
processed chickens, turkeys, pigs and cows are scooped up at the local farmers
market every Saturday in Springfield. Loyal customers have learned to line up
early to to avoid being disappointed when he sells out completely. Which he does
on a fairly regular basis. His brand, Raised Right Meats, is being held up as an
example of animal husbandry done in a superior way — and the taste of his
products prove it. The methods Kip is using to care for the land and raise his
animals not only make environmental sense, but more and more makes business
sense as well.
Rae Stang is an ace chocolatier. Working in her store, Lucky Chocolates, she
uses fair-traded chocolate, organic ingredients and local whenever possible to
produce luscious, small-batch sweets. An artist, a cook, and an entrepreneur
only begin to describe her. Visiting her store to taste her chocolates is quickly
becoming a serious stop when one is even close to Woodstock/Saugerties,
New York. Rae is building a fun, well done and meaningful business around
her love of chocolate.
When discussing ingredient driven restaurants, Blue Hill at Stone Barns in
Pocantico Hills, New York and the original Blue Hill in New York City have to
be near the top of the list. Chef Dan Barber may be the face of this operation
but he is quick to credit the professional staff that makes things work so well.
Blue Hill at Stone Barns combines a working farm, restaurant and education
center in spectacular Hudson Valley surroundings. When you eat dinner in
the restaurant, chances are the produce was brought to the kitchen from the
field that afternoon. Yes, it’s that fresh and local.
Watch the video shot at Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Stone Barns Center for
Food and Agriculture
Chef Peter Hoffman has a knack for choosing produce for his renowned restaurant at just the right time. He’s well known for riding his custom designed bicycle to the Union Square Greenmarket to supply Savoy with the freshest fruits and vegetables. His mission is simple: to produce memorable meals from the finest ingredients purchased from farmers he knows. He’s also very active in the politics of food and supports sustainable farming wholeheartedly.
The video below was shot at the Union Square Market in New York City.
Chris Regan was schooled as a painter, but the palette he uses nowadays is various shades of greens. He’s the brains behind Sky Farm near Millerton in upstate New York. With his small crew he grows 11 acres of gourmet salad mix including over 30 varieties of greens, herbs, edible flowers, and “wild” plants. In peak season he produces over eight hundred pounds a week which he markets directly to over 50 restaurants in the surrounding area. Chris has become something of an authority on salad mix composition and its seasonality. He maintains quality throughout the growing season with his use of organic methods, cover crops for fertility and weed management and smart rotations. Doing all that means the produce that comes out of his fields is the very best it can be.
Watch the video that was shot at Sky Farm and Terrapin Restaurant, Rhinebeck, New York.
The Clarke family has been farming in the area around Milton, New York since 1817. Pam Clarke Torres is a part of the sixth generation to grow quality apples, pears and other assorted fruits. (Her toddler son, Nathaniel represents the seventh.) It’s hard but satisfying work for her and her family as they maintain their farm and produce some of the best fruit around. New Yorkers are able to buy the luscious fruits of their labor at a couple of farmers markets in the city. Prospect Hill Orchards is a very consumer friendly farm. They invite people to “pick their own” when the fruit is ready and it’s not unusual to see six or seven school buses emptying grade schoolers ready to learn all about fruit farming. Not only is this a self-sustaining farm, they also have a bakery in Milton where they sell finished baked goods using the fresh fruit from down the road.
Click to view the video that was shot in and around the orchards and in NYC.
Alex Villani is a fisherman who works off the coast of Long Island. He and his wife Stephanie sell their catch at greenmarkets in New York City to the people smart enough to get there early. You have to get there early because most times the good stuff is gone before noon. Alex jokes that he named his business Blue Moon Fish because “once in a blue moon” he makes money. One thing is for sure, he makes his customers very happy with the selection he brings every time he opens his stand. In July 2005, the New York Times called his “the freshest fish in town”
and considering all things fish in NYC, that’s a pretty good recommendation.
Shot at the Tribeca Greenmarket and near Mattituck, New York.
Nina Planck knows a thing or two about food. She grew up raising and selling vegetables at her family’s farm stand in Virginia. She even started several farmers markets in London, of all places. She’s written a book that explodes a lot of myths we all have about food. Read her book, Real Food, and you’ll immediately understand why lots of so-called experts are just plain wrong about the science
of food. She lives and works in New York City.
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